rolanni | Mississippi Personhood Amendment

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Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Originally posted by

gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting ~~very little~~ no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

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Sorry Sharon,

Having a night and can't remember (or bother to find) LJ login and pw. I noticed here: http://www.maine.gov/legis/lio/125publications/SponsorsList125R2.pdf
LR2367: An act to limit the definition of "person" to a human being.

These are the titles only of bills for the upcoming Maine Legislative session. Now, if I wasn't so cynical, I'd believe that this was a good thing and a strike against the Mississippi bill but???? Without the text, who knows? I will be watching this one.

beth in Belgrade

Oh, ghod. Because someone has been trying to pass marmots off as "persons," right?

Thank you for the link. And yes, it does bear watching.

I'd suspect more an attempt to get stop corporations being considered 'persons'.

Keristor -- alas, these folks lack the insight to approach it that way....they really do want to believe that every pregnancy or potential pregnancy is their's to control, and every pregnancy that comes not to term is a criminal act. I note that if the the ancients had followed the failed-pregancy-as-capital-offense mode humans might have successfully died out in Africa.

No, that would be rational.

There are those, include me in this group, that believe Life begins at conception and not some arbitrary date in the future. I will have to admit that the subject of birth control and miscarriage is a path to which I have yet to travel. I suspect this is an example of a problem that will only be made worse by a government bureaucrat that decides another law is needed. After all that is why he/she was elected, wasn't it.

Thank you for your response.

Please sign your name in future posts. This is a Rule of the House.

I hope that, if and when you must deal with the issues of birth control or (Goddess forbid) miscarriage, that you will have choices available to you.

Aside from my personal political bias on the topic, which only adds to the numbers here, I recall from one biology class or another that fertilized human eggs often don't attach or find ways to disappear such that the woman would even realize she had conceived and that it happens quite frequently. How to differentiate those from the ones that will go full term or close to it is pointless nightmare of a problem, much less attempting to regulate.

If one believes that failure to sustain life (as defined by conception) is murder, then I strongly suggest that the people with such strong moral qualms refrain from any form of sex which could possibly lead to conception as a matter of personal integrity. Of course, to be fair they would also have to find ways to prosecute practically every living woman who has ever conceived. Making this view known to their sexual partners would seem courteous. Dealing with the mothers or potential mothers in ones own family could be problematic, with possible Darwinian consequences.

Bob

I'm not sure what is going on exactly but the above anonymous post is from James Pa... on your facebook page. For some reason it did not let me post it under my account

What's really bizarre is that I don't see the comment on my Facebook page.

Here's the thing -- if they want to, people can believe that New Life begins after really hot sex, and that said life is more sacred than any other life.

But!

They don't have the right to force the outcomes of their beliefs on people who might believe that abortion is a reasonable medical solution to an unwanted pregnancy, or on a woman who wants her baby very badly -- and loses it through no fault of her own.

That's the problem with this "personhood" thing. It forces undesirable outcomes on everybody. Roe vs. Wade, on the other hand, says that you may legally and safely obtain an abortion if, in your opinion, as the owner of your body and your life, it is necessary.

If you don't want to have an abortion, no one is going to force you. Especially, the law isn't going to force you.

Or: Roe vs. Wade is about having a choice, and a stake in your own life. And the "personhood" bill is about having no choices, and no agency in your own life and health.

Outrageous bill! Have sent contribution.
Peggy

I would like to donate but the link just took me to their basic home page with no indication of how to make a donation. Should I just use the main phone number to get donation information or do you have another link?

Anne in Virginia

Anne, I just made a donation thru the "Wake Up Mississippi" link above.

Thanks, Sharon, for pointing this out.

Thanks, donation made.

Anne in Virginia

There is a quote, in several forms, that says "First they came for (insert group of your choice) but I did nothing because I'm not a (insert group). Then they came for (insert another group) but I did nothing because I'm not (group)." Repeat with as many other groups as you like till you run out of the ones you don't agree with and feel you have the right to make powerless. And here comes the final part of the quote. "Then they came for me but by then there was no one left to help me." If you take away choice from one group, eventually some other group will decide that they have the right to take away your choice too...and there will be no one left to help you.

Anne in Virginia

I keep a bit of money in PayPal for just these occasions, and I sent them a donation today.

Having miscarried, I can understand very well that it happens by no intention of the mother. And I know that statistically it happens to almost a third of women.

What do these abominations know? NOTHING, that's what. They have to be stopped. Every place. Every time.

Have re-posted your post, made a donation, and alerted all others I can think of who are not on LJ. These idiots, and others like them, must be stopped.

Well, it certainly oversimplifies the debate.

If the...I'll be polite and call it a "discussion". . . was about the sanctity of unborn life above all other life, then the same folks who are against abortion ought to be ALL OVER providing safe, and affordable birth control.

...but they're not.

If the "discussion" was about healthy children reaching balanced adulthoods, then you'd think the folks who are against abortion would be ALL OVER providing safety nets for those same children, to see that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has health care, and good food, and good schooling.

...but they're not.

Because, of course, the "discussion" is not about either of those things, nor many more. The sole goal of the "discussion" on the part of the anti-abortionists is to have womens' lives controlled at every opportunity so they can become baby-making machines to pump out more and more True Believers for the Xtian Cause. That some of those babies will suffer poverty and/or neglect is all part of gawd's Plan and shouldn't be interfered with; after all, every good Theocrat needs an underclass to despise.

Where that leaves we who cannot become pregnant nobdy's saying. Probably The Camps. I'm simply appalled that it's got this far, with such a broad support base. The Christofascists' lie-distributing machine is very efficient : (

Again, VERY well said, Rolanni. If they demand to take responsibility for making a decision as to whether a child is born, they should also take on responsibility for helping that child grow to a healthy and productive adulthood, either directly or through supporting social safety net programs. Funny how that part of the decision/responsibility equation seems to be wholly left out of the calculations of those who most loudly espouse THEIR right to make decisions for everyone else. Cut social programs, they chant. We can't afford them. Their hypocrisy is nauseating.

Anne in Virginia

Elizabeth Moon also expressed her concern about this topic (and the group pushing it).

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Mississippi Personhood Amendment

it bears watching

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Mississippi Personhood Amendment 26

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Anonymous past

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Well said, Rolanni

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First they came...

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I think this about sums it up

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